The đàn tam is a three-stringed ("tam" means "three")

fret A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instrume ...

less plucked

Vietnamese musical instrument Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments are the musical instruments used in the traditional and classical musics of Vietnam. They comprise a wide range of string, wind, and percussion instruments, used by both the Viet () majority as well as the ...

. It has a long

fingerboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...

, and the body is traditionally partially covered by a snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is similar to the Chinese sanxian. It is used in

tuồng ''Hát tuồng'' (, Chữ Nôm: 咭從) or ''hát bội'' (, Chữ Nôm: 咭佩) is a form of Vietnamese theatre. Hát tuồng is often referred to as classical "Vietnamese opera" influenced by Chinese opera. Tuồng is distinct from the olde ...

theatre.Leiter, Samuel L. (2007). ''Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre: Vol. 1, A-N'', p.448. . "In tuong, the orchestra leads the action, using several drum types (trong cau, trong com, and trong chien), clackers, slit drum, two-string violin (don co), three-string lute (dam tam), flutes, reed instruments (cay ken), gong, and cymbals (chap ..."

References

Vietnamese musical instruments String instruments {{Composite-instrument-stub